120 MetaFilter comments by mikegre (displaying 1 through 50)

Bush Took Oil Firm's Loans as Director "As a Texas businessman, President Bush took two low-interest loans from an oil company where he was a member of the board of directors, engaging in a practice he condemned this week in his plan to stem corporate abuse and accounting fraud."
do as i say, not as i do?
comment posted at 11:13 AM on Jul-11-02

Oh-oh! Cheney featured in an Arthur Andersen's promotional video Priceless quote: "I get good advice, if you will, from their people based upon how we're doing business and how we're operating over and above the just sort of normal by-the-book auditing arrangement" . This is getting close to surreal.
comment posted at 10:17 AM on Jul-10-02

The Democratic Fascist Somebody please tell me that this is some kind of really awful joke: "Quite simply, the Democratic Fascist Movement is a well-organized, rapidly growing group of people, inspired by the work of our Visionary Mr. Sean Hannity, who affirm the necessity for Moral Unity in our Nation today. While we do not reject the Democratic Process, we also recognize the need for bringing conclusion to the mob rule which has characterized our Government of late. It is our belief that, through more stringent voting regulations, power must be placed back into the hands of the Moral Elite if this Great Nation can endure." More inside...
comment posted at 1:55 PM on Jul-9-02

It's national vegetarian week, apparently. After reading this article on chicken nuggets, I might be converting, not that I have ever eaten a chicken nugget, of course. It's not just junk food that leaves one feeling green about the gills though. I identified all of the vegetables in this quiz, I don't know that I would want to eat all of them though.
comment posted at 10:27 AM on Jul-8-02

US Marine Expat Burns Passport In Protest. As the International Court of Justice (ICC) in The Hague officially started operations on Monday, US activist and expat Kenneth Nichols burned his passport in front of the US consulate in Amsterdam.
comment posted at 10:20 AM on Jul-8-02

How talk radio went right-wing. Or further proof that the airwaves are owned by corporations and not by the American people. Regardless, its an interesting look at how politics changed the radio landscape.
comment posted at 6:59 AM on Jul-8-02

Can't say the pledge? Pick a school that does! School Vouchers are okay, even when used at religious schools. Well, that is a freedom of choice, no?
comment posted at 8:45 AM on Jun-27-02

HOLY MOTHER OF BACON! French fries?!?! Cancerous!?!?
comment posted at 12:59 PM on Jun-25-02

Online Sperm Bank for Lesbians Launched Whether you support it or not, you gotta love the web site name...
comment posted at 5:24 PM on Jun-24-02

http://www.nlcnet.org/bangladesh/index.html "For the last 8 years, young women at the Shah Makdhum factory in Bangladesh have been forced to work over 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, denied maternity benefits, beaten and paid just 15 cents for every $17.99 Disney shirts they sewed." "Michael Eisner, CEO of Disney, pays himself $133 million a year, or about $63,000 and hour. It would take a worker in Bangladesh sewing Disney garments for 12 cents an hour 210 years to earn what Eisner does in an hour."
comment posted at 7:40 AM on Jun-20-02

APOD turns seven. The Astronomy Picture of the Day hit the seven-year mark on Sunday (full archive list here). Simple and consistent in design, (possibly a record-holder for longest consistent design of an updated site) it's still maintained by astronomers Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell.
comment posted at 5:33 PM on Jun-17-02

Why , why, why? Bush vs. Saddam. Prequel to Desert Storm II.
comment posted at 7:02 PM on Jun-16-02

i can't believe country leaders keep doing very stupid things what do you think of the attitude of silvio berlusconi, italy's ultra right prime minister? i don't give a damn about his decision, but he (and also other silly country leaders: bush, fox, blair, etc.) should try to prevent this going public! there's also an incredible fact about poverty… and you thought aids was a problem?!

also… are really so desperate the communists (a.k.a. left wing)? it's a shame they did this!
comment posted at 7:14 PM on Jun-16-02
comment posted at 7:27 PM on Jun-16-02

Spare the rod and spoil the (1st grade) child... U.S. school violence gets really outta hand! Twenty first-grade students went to a hospital yesterday after their substitute teacher went berserk in their Washington Heights classroom, smacking them with a broomstick, pulling their hair and twisting their ears, police said. To paraphrase David Letterman, "what was he thinking of??"
comment posted at 7:16 AM on Jun-16-02

Cheer for Bush, or face arrest, OSU grads informed. A first person account of how Bush's speech at the Ohio State Graduation today resembled nothing so much as a fascist rally - as graduates who had planned to protest by simply turning their backs to Bush during his speech were informed that if they did so they would be arrested and expelled (no diploma). Inside the stadium, crowds of Bush suppporters had been bussed in from miles away. And everyone was instructed to cheer loudly for the president.
comment posted at 6:40 PM on Jun-14-02

"Stupid Barbados. You must be stopped!" It's official: Greenpeace now opposes everything.
comment posted at 1:58 PM on Jun-14-02

Would you sign your name to this statement? Why doesn't it appear in an American media outlet?
comment posted at 2:17 PM on Jun-14-02

Holland part of Axis of Evil? The Dutch parliament was shocked by a US legislative proposal giving an official green light to a US invasion of the Netherlands should it be deemed necessary to free US citizens from the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Pretty please, leave us alone, Jesse Helms.
comment posted at 2:35 PM on Jun-13-02
comment posted at 6:14 PM on Jun-13-02

"Dirty Bomber" also John Doe 2? "Here's a discovery to unsettle the average American and elate the average conspiracy theorist: Take a look at these two pictures. Notice any resemblence? The picture on the right is Abdullah al-Muhajir, aka Jose Padilla, whom the U.S. government claims is an al Qaeda operative recently arrested on suspicion of planning a "dirty bomb" radioactive attack on the U.S. And the picture at left? Why, that's John Doe No. 2, the still-unaccounted-for co-conspirator from the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995! What, you say, what? You mean the FBI somehow failed to notice this? Or did they?" (found on rotten.com)
comment posted at 2:26 PM on Jun-12-02

Music industry makes first mature move in years!
Universal and Sony will respond to piracy by selling CDs at $9.99 - and singles at .99. How easy was that? (Link requires free registration but well worth it, IMO)
comment posted at 1:16 PM on Jun-12-02
comment posted at 1:39 PM on Jun-12-02
comment posted at 2:22 PM on Jun-12-02

Fairly well-reasoned WSJ Op-Ed piece concerning the Boston Phoenix decision to link the unedited Daniel Pearl video. Apparently the Phoenix's editor claims he would have wanted it shown.
comment posted at 10:55 AM on Jun-12-02

UMass Researcher Finds Most People Lie In Everyday Conversation UMass Researcher Finds Most People Lie In Everyday Conversation "Most people lie in everyday conversation when they are trying to appear likable and competent, according to a study conducted by University of Massachusetts psychologist Robert S. Feldman and published in the most recent Journal of Basic and Applied Social Psychology…The study also found that lies told by men and women differ in content, though not in quantity. Feldman said the results showed that men do not lie more than women or vice versa, but that men and women lie in different ways. "Women were more likely to lie to make the person they were talking to feel good, while men lied most often to make themselves look better," Feldman said." Are you a liar? C’mon now, tell the truth.
comment posted at 10:23 AM on Jun-12-02

Brother Can You Spare a Prewar 7-Room Apt?
Will NYC ever be rid of a system that favors a select few, drives up housing costs for all, unfairly subsidizes vacation homes for the middle class and in general just doesn't work?
comment posted at 12:05 PM on Jun-11-02
comment posted at 12:40 PM on Jun-11-02

After the 9-11 massacre, most of us, eager to hear someone in a position of authority make reassuring noises, gave George B. Jr. some props. Even those of us who had our doubts before were, in that state of anxiety and fear, ready to applaud his actually quite banal statements. Then came the "axis of evil" speech. Die hard conservatives and Bush-lovers said "that's okay, he's just using colorful language - and, after all, those folks are evil." The rest of us groaned a bit. And now, his trip to Europe during which something very funny happened that reaffirms his 'through the looking glass', profoundly deep ignorance of the world.
comment posted at 4:57 PM on Jun-10-02

Revamping Yahoo's Homepage "The redesign is being fueled partly by advertisers, which are increasingly demanding more real estate on highly visible spots such as Yahoo's home page. Advertisers are irked that they can only buy minimal exposure on the main page of a site that draws a massive audience."
comment posted at 9:06 AM on Jun-10-02
comment posted at 11:30 AM on Jun-10-02

Essays added to SATs? I'm glad I don't have to take any more SATs! Among other proposed changes (such as a gradual inclusion of more advanced algebra & trig), the College Board hopes that including an essay portion will force students to spend more time writing. Thoughts?
comment posted at 8:19 AM on Jun-10-02

MI6 warned US of Al-Qaeda attacks MI6 warned the American intelligence services about a plot to hijack aircraft and crash them into buildings two years before the September 11 attacks.... I do not subsribe but this is summary of article and may prove very "annoying" to the agencies and people involved. The Sunday Times is too reputable to be readily dismissed as off the wall.
comment posted at 6:18 AM on Jun-9-02


Don't be stupid! Not in the sense of poor cognitive capacity, or low IQ, but more in the sense of lack of wisdom and foresight. Why do smart people make foolish decisions?
comment posted at 11:04 AM on Jun-8-02

A Boob in the Hall of Justice
Poet Claire Braz-Valentine's hilarious reading of her open letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft. (Text here for the QuickTime impaired.)
comment posted at 9:45 AM on Jun-7-02
comment posted at 10:15 AM on Jun-7-02

I must admit, I've always had my doubts about some of you... Corporations hire viral marketing firms to spread misinformation and bogus votes of support for their products on internet message boards. With all the front page entries about new movies, new records and new colored cola drinks, are we all being manipulated and duped by the marketing weasels even here on Metafilter?
comment posted at 11:52 AM on Jun-5-02

The secretive Bilderberg group is holding its annual meeting this weekend in a luxury hotel outside Washington, D.C. Is it OK for the top-100 of most influential people (politics and industry) to discuss 'the New World Order' behind closed doors ? Should we care ? Some people obviously do. I haven't made my mind up.
comment posted at 7:24 AM on Jun-3-02

UK Kids to Get £40 a Week to Stay in School. Schoolchildren are to be paid £40 a week to stay on at school as part of a multi-billion-pound revolution in secondary schools in England and Wales.
comment posted at 12:10 PM on Jun-2-02

"To compile The Top 100 Corporate Criminals of the 1990s, we used the most narrow and conservative of definitions -- corporations that have pled guilty or no contest to crimes and have been criminally fined." Just brimming with fascinating business lore, including "The FBI estimates that 19,000 Americans are murdered every year. Compare this to the 56,000 Americans who die every year on the job or from occupational diseases such as black lung and asbestosis and the tens of thousands of other Americans who fall victim to the silent violence of pollution, contaminated foods, hazardous consumer products...."
comment posted at 1:30 PM on May-31-02

A blasphemy trial out of the 17th century "Let's be clear. Criticising the precepts of modern Islam and the resultant actions of its adherents is not racist. Philosophically, it is the precise opposite of racism. It is an intellectual position arrived at through a consideration of ideas, rather than a cruel and irrational prejudice based upon the colour of someone's skin." Rod Liddle discusses the upcoming prosecution of French writer Michel Houellebecq for a comment he made about Islam in an interview. Some interesting points here about the wider context, in which Houellebecq has been attacked for the beliefs of the fictional characters he creates.
comment posted at 12:38 PM on May-29-02

"Power & Weakness" by Robert Kagan . If you have 20 minutes to spare this is the most interesting explanation for the EU/US divide I've come across.
comment posted at 12:45 PM on May-28-02

For the last century, historians, anthropologists and other scholars have searched both human history and the continents to find a matriarchy—a society where the power was in the hands of women, not men. Most have concluded that a genuine matriarchy does not exist, perhaps may never have existed. Untill now.
comment posted at 5:31 PM on May-26-02

On the heels of calls for an investigation into the failure of the American intelligence community to "connect the dots" prior to September 11th, Vice President Cheney says that a future attack against the United States is "almost certain." On Saturday an unnamed White House official said U.S. intelligence officials have detected "enhanced activity" that points to a potential new attack against the United States or American interests abroad.
comment posted at 6:48 PM on May-19-02
comment posted at 5:04 AM on May-20-02
comment posted at 5:36 AM on May-20-02

A heavy turnout has been reported in the Dutch general election. More on the current situation there: "A Dutch Radical's Message to Europe". This was published yesterday and was written by a Dutch reporter for the NYT (so I guess you can find it there too, but why go there if you don't really have to?).
comment posted at 8:46 AM on May-15-02
comment posted at 12:03 PM on May-15-02

next page »